Real-life Avatar
A world away from Hollywood in remote eastern India the story of Avatar is being played out. Avatar tells the story of the Na'vi whose existence is threatened by a mining corporation which wants to exploit mineral deposits beneath a giant sacred tree. In India's state of Orissa, indigenous tribespeople are battling to stop Vedanta Resources from extracting bauxite from their sacred mountain. (Religion, environment, sharing information, making a diagram, timeline, discussion.)Advanced

Bilingual Pre-schoolers
Preschoolers who speak Spanish as their first language at home are losing their native tongue while also struggling to speak English, according to American researchers.(Language learning, bilingualism, choosing the best answer, sentence extracts, true, false or not given, word find puzzle.)Intermediate

Rats Rats Rats
A video shown on television showed rats scampering across a New York City restaurant floor. With nearly four million rats born every day experts have warned that the rodents could spread more disease through towns and cities in developing nations. (Rats, sanitation, restaurants and the spread of disease, pest control, vocabulary work, understanding the main idea, listening gap fill, prediction, true or false, shouting dictation game, pair crossword, although and because.)Pre-Intermediate Lesson Updated: 5 April 2007

Are You Right?
This warmer helps students practice asking Yes/No questions to exchange information and have a short conversation with a partner about an everyday item.Elementary

Lost in The Big Apple
Ever wondered what would happen if you lost your wallet in a big city? If it happened in New York, chances are you would get it back. New Yorkers may have a reputation as being busy, cynical and tough but most will take the trouble and effort to find the owner of a lost wallet, according to a new study. (Honesty, city versus countryside, problem solving, writing a definition, conducting an experiment, quantifier words.)Upper-Intermediate

Redbacks and Snakes on the Move
Snakes are going into urban areas in Australia because they are looking for water and redback spiders were going inside. (Snakes, spiders, Australia, comprehension, prediction, reading for understanding, answering true or false questions, countable and uncountable nouns, much, many, some, any, a few, a little, few, less)Elementary

Killer Games
A 2007 article says that violent video games do not make children into murderers. (Violent video games and effect on children, violence, discussion, vocabulary hunt, filling the gaps in a table, finding and correcting grammatical errors.)Intermediate

What do you do?
This warmer is an enjoyable way for elementary students to revise the question, "What do you do?" and practice occupation words.Elementary

Left Behind Kids
Xiao Yun and Xiao Bo are, in many ways, typical rural Chinese kids. But when the 11 and 12-year-old return to their small cave home - still common for many here on the edge of the Loess Plateau in China's northwestern Shaanxi province - there are no parents waiting for them. (Text Organization, Problem Solving, Discussion, Research Project)Advanced

Shhh! Workers Sleeping!
A study of nearly 24,000 Greek adults published in 2007 found those who regularly took midday naps lowered their risk of dying from heart disease by more than a third. (Sleeping, health, business.)Intermediate

Water Crisis
Fleets of supertankers could one day ply the world's oceans laden not with oil but fresh water. The world's top climate scientists have issued the strongest warning yet that human activity was heating the planet. By 2100, water scarcity could impact between 1.1 and 3.2 billion people. (Water conservation, predicting from a headline, completing a table, interpreting, survey on water use, completing a poster slogan, finding grammatical errors.)Upper-Intermediate Lesson Updated: 9 February 2007

Hot Chopsticks
A high school in Japan is going to have a chopstick test in its entrance exams. The test will take ten minutes and students will use chopsticks to move things like marbles and dice from one plate to another. (Discussion, be going to, completing a summary, reading for meaning, brainstorming.)Elementary

Max Vocab Worksheet: The United Nations
Here are a couple of exercises on words related to the United Nations and the Security Council. This worksheet goes well with the Upper Intermediate lesson "The Security Council".Upper-Intermediate

"Not Mad" Cows Created
U.S. and Japanese scientists said on Sunday that they had used genetic engineering to produce cattle that resist mad cow disease.(Genetic engineering, Mad Cow Disease, BSE, CJD, scientific research, the passive.)Intermediate

Education in Crisis
Ahmed waits outside his school's gates on a chilly midweek morning, holding his textbooks by his side. But as the majority of pupils and teachers fail to arrive, the 18-year-old, who is in his final year at high school, has to put off learning for yet another day. "It's canceled again today," he said. (Education in an area of conflict, Iraq, brainstorming vocabulary, checking predictions, completing a sentence summary, inferring, discussion, describing qualities.)Advanced

Christmas in different countries
To practice reading for understanding, asking and answering questions and to learn about the Christmas customs of different countries.Pre-Intermediate

- Prefixes - Max Vocabulary Worksheet
"Australian Children's Band Wiggles Its Way to Asia" - an article in which we look at the use of prefixes. There are also matching exercises and pair crossword puzzles to complete.Intermediate

Wiggly Entertainment
Greg Page, the yellow Wiggle, has announced that he will retire from the Wiggles because of illness. Australia's top-selling children's phenomenon, a hyperactive band of preschool teachers, and a giggling dinosaur, has been extremely successful but now the group will be changing. (Children's entertainment, creating an image, brainstorming)Intermediate

What's Your Surname?
People with the name of Jones are traveling to Wales to set a new world record. In Sweden many people change their names. Why?? Do this lesson to find out. (Common surnames, Sweden, Wales, surnames, history of names, adjectives + too, present continuous tense.)Elementary

"A plan for the day" - Worksheet
An Anna Grammar worksheet on going to and want to, would like/would love and wouldn't like to talk about plans.Pre-Intermediate

Thin is Not In
Fancy canapes and champagne have become rarer, guest-lists smaller and celebrities tougher to find in the front rows of some fashion shows these days and underweight models from fashion shows banned to stop teenagers from starving themselves. (Role-models, fashion and fashion shows, eating disorders, matching information, jigsaw reading, future forms--will and be going to for future decisions and intentions.)Intermediate

Safer Cars For Pedestrians
Safety stickers required on new cars in 2007, energy-absorbing bumpers, pop-up engine covers and windshield air bags could soon be added, child-safety seat restraints for children much safer than ordinary seat belts in crashes. (Safety features for cars and pedestrian fatalities, jigsaw reading, zero, definite and indefinite articles, listening and gap fill.)Upper-Intermediate

Move Your Body Game
This warmer reviews the meanings of different movement verbs and parts of the body.Upper-Intermediate

Dignity in Dying
The House of Lords blocked a controversial law today to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. (Euthanasia, quality of life, the UK, laws, relative clauses.) Upper-Intermediate

Disappearing Fish
The world's fish and seafood populations will collapse by 2048 if current trends in habitat destruction and overfishing continue, resulting
in less food for humans. In Japan fish is a cherished delicacy. Two articles that look at overfishing and the popularity of fish in Japan. (Depletion of fish stocks, conservation, eating seafood, survey, scanning, true or false, prepositions, brainstorming, first conditional.)Upper-Intermediate

Anna Grammar Worksheet - Relative Clauses
A relative clause combines two sentences, the second sentence describing a noun in the first sentence. This worksheet has explanations, examples and exercises for your students.Upper-Intermediate

Casualties on the Increase2006 World's largest Lesson: Casualties on the increase - A record area was cleared of landmines worldwide last year, but casualties caused by the weapons rose by 11 percent. (Landmines facts, brainstorming, choosing the best answer, scanning, thinking carefully, research)All levels lesson!Intermediate

You must go and see him!
An icebreaker to practice correct intonation and pronunciation and to look at examples of modals of obligation. Intermediate

Gone to the Dogs
Yappy hours for dogs, dog perfumes and dog parties. Cottages with lounge beds, color TV and VCRs for dogs on holiday. Find out about the booming pets' products industry: in 2006 about $7 billion will be spent on dogs. (Dogs, dog merchandise and luxury holidays, verb patterns: verbs that take an object and a to-infinitive, discussion, selling a product.)Upper-Intermediate

The Origins of Halloween
This warmer could be used with a Halloween lesson or a lesson about festivals or rituals.Intermediate

Lightning Safety
Seeking refuge in houses, schools or office buildings, unplugging computers and avoiding open fields during thunderstorms can help reduce the number of injuries and deaths caused by lightning during the summer months. Never use a mobile phone outside during a lightning strike. (Lightning, safety during thunderstorms, scanning, expressions using lightning, verb patterns.)Upper-Intermediate Lesson Updated: 20 October 2006

Talking About Health Game
This warmer gives students speaking practice and helps them develop fluency through the use of cue cards.Intermediate

Air Affecting Business
Andy Ridehalgh, a British expatriate who has worked as an English teacher for three years in Hong Kong, has had enough of the city's air pollution. (Air pollution, Hong Kong, the environment, first and second conditionals brainstorming, choose the best answer, matching information.)Intermediate